I am writing this post about calculating one’s share ownership percentage because of an email exchange I had on behalf of a client.

We had formed a Delaware corporation with 10 million authorized shares. Of the authorized shares, 8 million had been issued to the founder.

The founder and an independent contractor had agreed on equity compensation for the contractor. The agreed-upon share ownership percentagewas 2%.

The contractor thought that he should receive 200,000 shares (2% of 10 million). The rest of this post explains how and why the contractor was incorrect.

Authorized vs. Issued Shares

When one discusses a corporation’s shares of stock, two numbers are important: the number of authorized shares and the number of issued shares.

The corporation’s Certificate of Incorporation specifies the number of authorized shares. This is the maximum number of shares that the corporation can issue to stockholders at a given time. This number is somewhat arbitrary. Perhaps most significantly, with required approvals the number of authorized shares can change at any time (for example, if a major investor is found). One need simply amend the Certificate of Incorporation. So, while the corporation currently is authorized to issue 10 million shares, that number could increase to 100 million next week, and to 1 billion next month.

The number of issued (sometimes referred to as “issued and outstanding”) shares is the number of shares that the corporation, pursuant to board of directors approval, has granted to the various stockholders. This is the number that determines, at a given time, the percentage of a corporation’s shares that are held by a given stockholder.

Calculating Share Ownership Percentage

At present, the corporation has issued 8 million shares. To determine the number of shares that should be issued so the contractor will hold 2% of all issued shares, we need to solve the following equation:

X / (8,000,000 + X) = .02

The solution:

X = 163,265

So, “163,265” is the number of shares to be issued so the contractor’s share ownership percentage will be 2%.

Dana Shultz is a business-savvy lawyer located in Northern California's San Francisco Bay Area (in the East Bay, near Oakland) who has in-depth knowledge of law, business, technology, and the needs of startup and early-stage companies.